The German record label Grid-Noton is twenty years old. The anniversary is celebrated with showcases at several festivals and with a three-kilo catalogue. So records to go with the records and no boxset with the musical highlights. A very special approach, from a very special label.
Sound and vision
A label releasing a hefty catalogue is not an everyday occurrence. As such, Raster-Noton is no ordinary label. It does not adorn itself with the subtitle for nothing archiv für ton und nichtton. Sound and vision are for founders and driving forces Carsten - Alva Noto - Nicolai, Frank Bretschneider and Olaf - Byetone - Bender equally important.
Concerts as exhibitions
Early on, therefore, releases by Raster-Noton are picked up mainly by the world of visual arts. Initially, concerts mainly take place in museums and galleries. The label does not shy away from releasing books as true exhibition catalogues even in the early years and the 20′ to 2000 CD series is acquired by MoMA. For its design, Raster-Noton wins several awards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyvSAf-JQoU
Social life
Steel-hard and string-tight beats jangled and down to the smallest nuance tweaked pulsing through the extremely minimalist future music that has come to be known as the Raster-Noton idiom. Inhuman it may have seemed as well, but gradually the somewhat stern-looking performers (not infrequently dressed in black turtlenecks) also seek out more of the club's social life. Schwung and colour are creeping into the RN dictionary. Sort of, anyway.
Statement
With dead straight lines, a diagram style and minimal text or explanation, Raster-Noton proves to be different from other labels; visually alone, the ironclad label-statement is a work of art in itself. Anyone looking through Source Book 1 browses, you will notice that the most stripped-down style has been abandoned a bit, but still RN releases are recognisable out of thousands. For that, you don't even need to hear them.
Everything numbered
This book also stands out in its white, immaculate glory. Three kilos of paper the men have issued, containing almost every catalogue number. Because, make no mistake: at Raster-Noton, records, EPs, CDs, singles as well as books, T-shirts and posters all get a serial number. The book that dwarfs many a phone book (itself numbered r-n 175), can be read as an ode to what was, complete with retrospective interview with Max Dax at the front. Looking back remains somewhat apart for a progressive, not to say futuristic label.
Source Book 1 is also carried out to the very highest specifications in terms of paper, printing and execution of the case. It is even bound Japanese-style; no wonder it is so heavy. The catalogue is also modular, meaning that you can unscrew the screws to add new pages in due course. In this way, an open-ended, forward-looking format has been provided.
Swing
At the end of the catalogue, Raster-Noton provides a compilation CD. On it, you won't only find work by celebrated names that have shaped the label. Newer signings as Ueno Masaaki and Kyoka are present. As mentioned, a blush appears on Raster-Noton's pale cheeks; a swing comes in the hips.
Taken by the nose
Yet, with all the rigour and nothing more than the most basic of visual and sonic information, you involuntarily wonder if you're not being led by the nose; whether Raster-Noton, in all its minimalism, might not exactly be displaying the emperor's clothes? What's wrong with an ordinary pop song with head and tail and melody plus lyrics? Why can't there be a cover design drawn to life from it?
Doesn't Raster-Noton place itself far too far from the inhabited human world to have any serious impact, to be able to stir? Or, is that very distance the unique aspect that makes the label so inscrutable and unapproachable? After 20 years of activity in ton und nicht-ton it can be established that the haunting truth lies with the latter. Raster-Noton has become a fixture and benchmark in quality electronic music where digital minimalism is practised at the cutting edge. And in that, you can even find a bit of progression, without renouncing its core values.
Trio for the future
Now Source Book 1 (sections by artist and on tours over the years follow) remains unfinished, I suggest three artists who could effortlessly become part of the Raster-Noton family. In the context of Raster-Noton at somewhat loose ends; who knows, you might add work by this trio to the sourcebook in the coming years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDLPcOS7KLM
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Grid-Noton. Source Book 1 appeared on 17 March 2017.
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